Tag: CBS

Stephen Colbert, the host of CBS’s The Late Show, is alleging that the network refused to air a prescheduled interview with Democratic state legislator and Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico due to new guidance from the Federal Communications Commission, the latest example of CBS appearing to bow to pressure from the Trump administration.

Colbert opened his show Monday by telling his audience that he would be joined later by actress Jennifer Garner as his guest. But then the late-night host began to talk about who wouldn’t be part of that evening’s broadcast. “You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s Texas state representative James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no certain terms by our network’s lawyers — who called us directly — that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said. “Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”

Colbert then began to describe the FCC’s “equal time” rule, which requires radio and broadcast television programs to provide equal coverage to all of an election’s candidates, saying there’s been a long-standing exemption for news interviews and talk-show interviews with candidates. But Colbert said that FCC commissioner Brendan Carr issued a guidance in January targeting the daytime and late-night talk-show exemption, claiming that many of the programs are motivated by “partisan purposes” and may no longer qualify. Per the host, CBS pulled the interview based on the memo.

“Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC. So ‘FCC you’ because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself,” Colbert said to applause from the crowd. “Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV.”

Colbert said he intended to go forward with his interview of Talarico, telling his viewers that it would be available online on The Late Show’s YouTube channel rather than aired live. The 14-minute sit-down was posted early Tuesday morning and had more than 730,000 views by 10 a.m. Forbes reports that Colbert’s conversation with Talarico quickly became the host’s most-watched interview in months and, by Tuesday afternoon, was on pace to succeed his interview with pop star Taylor Swift which has approximately 1.4 million views. At the top of their interview, Talarico floated his own theory for the network’s refusal to air his conversation with Colbert. “I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas,” Talarico said.

Anna Gomez, an FCC commissioner, issued a statement condemning CBS’s move, calling it “yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this Administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech.”

In a statement, CBS claims that The Late Show was “not prohibited” by the network from airing the Talarico interview. “The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” the statement read. “THE LATE SHOW decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

Over the past year, critics have torched CBS for appearing to cave to the Trump administration’s moves to reshape the country’s media ecosystem. Paramount, CBS’s parent company, paid out a multimillion-dollar settlement to President Donald Trump, who had sued the network over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with Vice-President Kamala Harris, a lawsuit most legal experts deemed meritless and doomed to fail in court. Soon after, the FCC would approve Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media. In the months since, CBS underwent sweeping changes, including an overhaul of 60 Minutes and CBS News as a whole through the hiring of Bari Weiss, as well as the announced cancellation of The Late Show after Colbert denounced Paramount’s settlement with Trump as a “bribe.”

But CBS is not the only network facing scrutiny for its coverage of Talarico’s campaign to flip a Republican Senate seat in Texas. Earlier this month, Fox News reported that the FCC was investigating ABC’s The View following Talarico’s appearance on the show, citing the “equal time” guidance.

Talarico told Colbert that the federal government’s actions represented the “most dangerous” form of cancel culture: “the kind that comes from the top.”

“They went after The View because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn’t like. They went after you for telling the truth about Paramount’s bribe to Donald Trump,” he said. “Corporate media executives are selling out the First Amendment to curry favor with corrupt politicians. And a threat to any of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all our First Amendment rights.”

In practice, the increased attention might ultimately be a boon for Talarico’s Senate chances. Early voting for the March 3 primary began Tuesday just as news of CBS’s punted interview emerged. The state representative is set to face off against Representative Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary. The winner will face the victor in the tense Republican primary featuring incumbent Senator John Cornyn, Representative Wesley Hunt, and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton.